Cracked Cauldron Spillings

Part III: Wherein we follow our Intrepid Entrepreneurs as they stumble and bumble towards the goal of opening a bakery in OKC while talking about baking and food.

Monday, February 02, 2004

Opening Session

Today is our legislature's opening session, and tonight is the State of the State Address. Gov. Henry has never been poor, and has never tried to start a business from scratch. There is nothing he will say that will address any of the issues effectively that truly face the people of this state.

I suppose that's one of many reasons we're opening the Cracked Cauldron.

The politicians and wealthy people of this state have either never known what it is to do without, or have so thoroughly forgotten they may as well not know.

There's not one of them that can tell you where the homeless live, or how many there are, or what they do when we get freezing rain and ice. There's not one of them that understands the importance of a penny.

Most of them will not even see the homeless living right where they work.

How can they address the needs of their constituents when the only ocnstituents they see are the ones waving hundred dollar bills(anything less is invisible)?

There are a myriad of small charities around, ones that fly beneath the radar of government regulations and IRS tax-free status. I know of 17 of them in town. I'll bet our local politicians can't even name one of them, let alone what needs they address.

Instead, our government is going to concern itself with squeezing more money out of these very people by attempting to pass legislation that impose a tax on filing income taxes, and impose or increase taxes on sugar, soda, cigarettes, gasoline, and fatty foods.

Of course, Cracked Cauldron isn't going to be selling cigarettes or gasoline, but the principle remains the same.

These taxes will impose an undue hardship on businesses, who will have to recalibrate their computers to calculate different taxes for different items. It will impose an undue hardship on people in general who will not be able to afford these things with the higher taxes. In turn, this will reduce the expected revenues so our politicians can scream we have a funding shortage.

And it's the small businesses and the small spenders who will hurt the worst.

Opposing any new taxes is the best Cracked Cauldron can hope to do in order to succeed in both its efforts as a bakery and as a charity.

Sugar, soda, and fatty food taxes will have a definite impact on our business.

In the meantime, we will behave as if these tax proposals will never leave the legislature (because we will be registering our disapproval, and yeah, our legislators will listen to us, uh huh), and proceed with our plans.

We got in a big bag of flour from a local mill. Some types of flours suit some types of baked goods better than others. Besides, where possible, we want to support local mills and businesses. If this flour pans out, we'll be steady customers for this mill. Hope it's good!